THE MEADOW PIPIT 117 



top of a bush, or one of the upper branches of an elm-tree standing 

 in a hedgerow, from which, if watched for a short time, he will be 

 seen to ascend with quivering wing about as high again as the tree ; 

 then, stretching out his wings and expanding his tail, he descends 

 slowly by a half-circle, singing the whole time, to the same 

 branch from which he started, or to the top of the nearest other 

 tree ; and so constant is this habit with him, that if the observer 

 does not approach near enough to alarm him, the bird may be seen 

 to perform the same evolution twenty times in half an hour, and I 

 have witnessed it most frequently during and after a warm May 

 shower.' Its descent to the ground is generally performed in the 

 same manner. Its food consists of insects and small seeds, for 

 which it searches among the grass or newly-ploughed ground, with 

 the walking and running gait of the Wagtails, but without their 

 incessant waving movement of the tail. The nest, which is placed 

 on the ground, under a tuft of grass or low bush, and very frequently 

 on the skirt of a wood or copse, is composed of dry grass and small 

 roots, and lined with finer grass and hair. The eggs are usually 

 five in number, and vary so much, that extreme specimens would 

 scarcely seem to belong to the same bird. In the predominating 

 brown hue a tinge of red is, however, always perceptible, and by 

 this it may be distinguished from the egg of the Meadow Pipit. ^ The 

 Tree Pipit is not seen in Ireland, or it is as yet unrecorded there. 



THE MEADOW PIPIT 



ANTHUS PRATENSIS 



Hind claw longer than the toe, slightly curved ; upper parts ash, tinged with 

 olive, especially in winter, the centre of each feather dark brown ; under 

 parts reddish white, streaked with dark brown. Length five inches and 

 three-quarters. Eggs dull white, variously spotted and mottled with 

 brown 



It may be thought at the first glimpse that a difference in the com- 

 parative length of the hinder claws of two birds so much alike as 

 the Tree and Meadow Pipits is scarcely sufficient to justify a specific 

 distinction ; but when it is considered that a short and curved claw 

 enables a bird to retain a firm grasp of a small twig, while a long and 

 almost straight one is best adapted for perching on the ground, it 

 will appear at once that, however similar two birds may be in all 

 other respects, yet the slight one in which they differ is the point 

 on which hinges a complex scheme of habits. So the Tree Pipit 



> ' Amongst our land birds ', says Hewitson, ' there is no species the eggs 

 of which present so many, or such distinct varieties, as those of the Tree Pipit. 

 No one would at first believe them to be eggs of the same species ; and it was 

 not till I had captured the bird upon each of the varieties, and also received 

 them from Mr. H. Doubleday, similarly attested, that I felt satisfactorily 

 convinced upon the subject.' 



